Iran’s Nuclear Agenda Resulting in a missile defence shield being deployed in Europe by 2018

Iran, facing growing international pressure over its nuclear programme, is calling for more talks with the United Nations. While Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency have stalled and Western powers are increasingly concerned over the possible Iranian military dimensions of Tehran’s nuclear research.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran is significantly stepping up its uranium enrichment, a finding that is sending oil prices higher on fears tensions between Tehran and the West could escalate into military conflict. While the Iranian government is still refusing to address intelligence reports about covert research relevant to developing nuclear weapons, Israel is threatening to launch preventive military strikes against Iran. For many, Iran’s failure to comply with its international obligations regarding its nuclear programme could easily escalate into possible military dimensions and for some, the West is guilty of double standards when backing Israel, the only Middle East state outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

There are only two possible issues of this conflict: one is engagement, cooperation and interaction; the other is confrontation and conflict.

2018

Europe is now protected by a continent-wide missile defence system, developed and deployed by the US military. This continent-wide missile defence system been established in phases between 2011 and 2018.

Phase 1 saw the deployment of a land-based early warning radar system which Turkey agreed to host as well as ships United States of America in the Mediterranean. Phase 2 saw the creation of a land-based SM-3 interceptor site in Romania, a missile system initially used by the US Navy to intercept short to intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Phase 3, to counter short-medium and intermediate-range missile threats, added a more advanced SM-3 interceptor and a second land-based SM-3 site, which Poland agreed to host, located close to the Baltic Sea and Lithuania, roughly 50 miles from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Initially, this defence shield resulted in a cooling of relations between the US and Russia, which initially expressed concerns over the presence of missiles so close to its border, viewing it as a security threat despite assurances from the US that the shield was for potential threats from Iran and the Middle East. and was neither designed nor capable of threatening the large numbers and sophisticated ability of Russia’s strategic forces.

At the end, after years of engagement, cooperation and diplomatic interaction, by 2035, Israel will lie in ruins.